Lebanon: Hezbollah Wins Parliamentary Elections

In Lebanon, Hezbollah and its allies have won the parliamentary elections held on yesterday (May 6).

The official results of the parliamentary elections have not been announced yet. But Prime Minister Hariri has already confessed that his party has lost one-third of the seats.

Announcing victory in the parliamentary elections, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah said their triumph in the elections guaranteed the resistance against Israel.

The leader of Shi’ite Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, called the result “a very big political, parliamentary and moral victory for the choice of resistance.”

Saad Hariri may still be asked to form a government because according to the power-sharing system of the Lebanese constitution the prime minister has to a Sunni.

The complex power-sharing system of Lebanese constitution requires the president to be a Maronite Christian and the speaker of the parliament a Shia.

But the loss of one-third of his MPs will turn Saad Hariri into a weaker figure in the Lebanese political spectrum.

The Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri said his party ended up with only 21 parliamentary seats; 12 lesser than the last parliamentary elections held nine years ago.

“We had hoped for a better result, it’s true. And we were hoping for a wider bloc, with a higher Shia and Christian representation, that’s also true. But everyone could see that the Future Movement was facing a project to eliminate it from political life,” Mr. Hariri told the press.

Mr. Hariri has pledged “to participate in securing political stability and to improve the lives of all the Lebanese,” despite the elections defeat.

The Lebanese elections defeat has enraged many in Israel. An Israeli lawmaker Naftali Bennett said the elections result proved that Lebanon and Hezbollah are indistinguishable.

Mr. Bennett wrote on Twitter: “The state of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign state of Lebanon and Hezbollah and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory.”

Mr. Hariri’s elections losses were largely because of the low turnout of the voters. Among 3.6 million eligible voters, only 49.2% voters voted.

Mr. Hariri said, “The problem with this election: a lot of people didn’t understand it.”